BEYOND WINTER: Musings of An Old Man—THE NEW MIDDLE {T, 5-14-23]
Things fall apart; the
centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed
upon the world.
The blood-dimmed tide
is loose, and everywhere
The ceremony of
innocence is drowned.;
The best lack all
conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Those are the 3rd through 6th lines of W.B. Yeats’ famous 1919 poem, “The Second Coming,” penned in response to WWI and the beginning of The Irish War of Independence. It ends with the oft-appropriated “slouching toward Bethlehem” line.
Those lines might have been written today, about the United States. Or maybe, specifically, The United Methodist Church [UMC].
The UMC has been much in the news the last couple of years, as anti-gay congregations have “disaffiliated” for fear the UMC would accept gays as full members, and specifically the last couple of weeks, while its General Conference, with delegates from all over the world, has been meeting to deal with its most recent crisis of inclusion.
It’s important to remember that “United” in UMC does not refer to theology or society. It’s a denominational name, not a descriptive name. “United” was part of the name of The Evangelical United Brethren denomination. When the EUBs merged with The Methodist Church denomination in 1968, one word was selected from each of the two former names to provide the name for the new church.
I do think, though, that unofficially, we always thought of “United” as a theological hope. As Peter Schultheis wrote in his hymn, “They’ll Know We are Christians by our Love:” We are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord, and we pray that all unity may one day be restored…”
Robert Schuller--of The Crystal Cathedral, pretty much the opposite of a connectional denomination like Methodism--said a number of years ago that “…if the UMC did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it.”
He meant that the UMC occupied the broad middle of the denominational spectrum, a place where right and left could meet.
As the middle, the UMC too often tried to please everyone, theologically and socially. That was good, because we wanted to include everyone. It was bad, because it represented Yeats’ “…the best lack all conviction.”
It’s very difficult to include excluders, of either right or left, because they do not want to be included, not if they have to be in there with “the others.”
The most recent crisis of inclusion revolves around homosexuality, but it is certainly not the first. John Wesley’s life spanned almost the entire 18th century, and during that time, his “people called Methodist,” had to deal with the social gospel [dealing with folks who said that the church should leave society alone and deal only with “the life hereafter], predestination [eternal division], democracy [against those who want a class/caste system], and slavery.
As Methodism came to America, slavery took front and center, and continued for… well, forever… as Civil War, reconstruction, segregation, civil rights, voting rights… well, race “relations,” including “some of my best friends are, but would you want your daughter to marry one?”
In fact, Methodism divided over slavery then, just as it is now over homosexuality. In 1844, the southern Methodist churches “disaffiliated” from The Methodist Episcopal Church and formed The Methodist Episcopal Church South. [Episcopal here has nothing to do with The Episcopal Church. It simply means a church with bishops, as distinct from The Methodist Protestant Church [MP], which did not have bishops.] Less than 100 years later, in 1939, folks began to realize that was neither Christian nor logical and so The MP, ME, and ME South churches merged into The Methodist Church.]
The same thing will happen with the churches that have divided over homosexuality, but it will probably take only 50 years, maybe fewer, because the issue of homosexuality has already been decided in society, especially with young people. The church just hasn’t caught up.
God is too smart to work only through the church. As the great church historian, Albert Outler, said, “The church has never done the right thing until pressured to do so by the world.”
Of course, by the time we all acknowledge that this homophobic division is neither smart nor Christian, there may be no churches at all, if present trends continue. People are getting fed up with Christians who can’t get along with one another.
The problem with being the middle now is that no one wants a middle. In fact, the middle is hated by folks from all sides of it. Its very existence reminds them that they are frightened little kids who can’t stand for anything to be different from what they feel comfortable with.
How did we lose the middle? Well, because we had a black president. Thanks, Obama!
We thought the exact opposite when he was first elected. We thought the election of a black president showed that we were united, that we did not need our divisions anymore. But losing the divisions scared the pants off scaredy-pants people.
That was personified in Donald Trump. If you’ve always had privilege--as white people, especially straight white men, have always had--then equality makes you think you’re a victim. Donald Trump was the perfect model of someone who had everything, without working for it, and thought he was discriminated against because a black man got something better than he had, by working for it.
As Saul Alinsky said, “If you want to know where the action is, look for the reaction.” The action was in the middle. The reaction was everywhere else.
When I was ten years old, a boy on my school bus proclaimed, “My father says that the worst white man is still better than the best black man.” It made no sense even then, but most of the folks on the bus agreed. A lot still do. Fear and hate are not rational.
The fear and hate in the UMC is expressed not just in disaffiliation but in the attempt to destroy the UMC, so that there is no chance of a religious middle at all. That includes The Institute for Religion and Democracy, started by my friend and fellow UM pastor, Ira Galloway. I grieved for him then, and I mourn for him now.
The disaffiliations mean that The UMC is about 30% smaller than it was. But there is a new spirit in the UMC, not just of social change, but spiritual renewal, because with those anti-gay churches gone, the UMC’s General Conference just ended its strictures on gay folks. No more wishy-washy middling “Homosexuals are people of sacred worth but homosexuality is not in keeping with the Christian lifestyle.” In other words, no more “You gays are bad people.” No more bans on gays being preachers, or on preachers marrying gay couples. Total inclusion.
You know what that is? That’s the middle. It holds.
John Robert McFarland
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